CARY, NC (Jan. 27, 2021) – After more than two decades of dedication to advance the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer, Dr. Martin J. Murphy has retired from the Board of Directors of the CEO Roundtable on Cancer. The Board immediately elected him Director Emeritus.

Dr. Murphy was instrumental in launching the CEO Roundtable on Cancer in 2001 at the request of President George H.W. Bush who challenged him to engage action-oriented chief executives to “do something more about cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment within your own family as well as within your corporate family.”

According to Robert A. Bradway, chairman of the Board of the CEO Roundtable on Cancer and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Amgen, “There has been no greater warrior in the fight against cancer than Marty. He took President Bush’s challenge deeply to heart and has worked with a bold and venturesome spirit since then to build a global organization that has touched millions of lives.”

Today, the CEO Roundtable on Cancer works to develop and implement initiatives that reduce the risk of cancer, enable early diagnosis, facilitate access to the best available treatments, and hasten the discovery of novel and more effective anti-cancer therapies to help eliminate cancer as a personal disease and public health problem.

“Marty is a living treasure to cancer patients throughout the world,” added Robert A. Ingram, Founding Chairman of the CEO Roundtable on Cancer. “His dedication and leadership have made the CEO Roundtable on Cancer a leader in the ongoing effort to eliminate this dreadful disease.” The 2019 Dr. Charles A. Sanders Life Sciences Award was presented to Dr. Murphy for extraordinary leadership in the fight against cancer by the CEO Roundtable on Cancer.

Dr. Murphy also was the Founding CEO of Project Data Sphere, LLC, a non-profit enterprise devoted to cancer clinical trial data transparency, data-sharing and data analysis founded in 2014 as a subsidiary of the CEO Roundtable on Cancer. He also retired from its Board of Directors. Since its founding, the Project Data Sphere open-access data platform has contributed to more than 90 peer-reviewed publications, many of which have changed clinical and research practices. 

The CEO Cancer Gold Standard also was created under Dr. Murphy’s leadership in 2006. Today more than 200 companies and 7 million employees and their family members benefit from the program. The Cancer Gold Standard gives employers a framework for building a healthier workplace by focusing on cancer risk reduction, early detection, access to clinical trials and high-quality care.

Dr. Murphy summarized that, “The health impact of President Bush may be measured by the lengthening of the lives of those who have been tempest-tossed by a cancer diagnosis. What an honor it has been to devote myself to the service of cancer patients inspired by President Bush in partnership with legendary leaders like Bob Bradway and Bob Ingram. Truly, I have been blessed.”

Dr. Murphy is the Founding CEO of the Shanghai TuoXin Health Promotion Center in China, which was registered a “first-in-class” non-governmental organization (NGO) in 2015. An employer-led health and wellness model, it is also committed to the global conquest of the COVID-19 pandemic and improving worldwide pandemic preparedness.

Dr. Murphy is co-chairman of the Scientific & Strategic Advisory Council of the International COVID-19 Data Alliance (ICODA) of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and founding Editor of three peer-reviewed biomedical journals: The Oncologist, Stem Cells and Stem Cells Translational Medicine.

He also is a co-founder of the Society for Translational Oncology; a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Hatteras Venture Partners; a charter member of the International Advisory Board of the VU University Medical Imaging Center (Amsterdam); a charter member of Queen’s University Belfast School of Medicine International Review Board; Director Emeritus of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH); Chairman Emeritus of the Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO; convener of ACT-China; and a Steering Committee member and senior consultant to the Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology (CSCO).